1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the location and support of ceramic substrates, particularly while the substrates are worked on, for example screen printing of circuits and other features.
2. Related Art
The present trend of ceramic substrates is to reduced thickness and larger areas. This is because thinner substrates are cheaper to make in that they contain less material. Also, it is often possible to produce several circuit boards from a single substrate and dividing the substrate into individual boards can readily be done with these substrates by scoring the substrate, for example by a laser, and then breaking by bending. Thick substrates are not as easily broken.
However, a problem arises with large ceramic substrates in that warping of the substrate can occur. This problem increases with decrease in substrate thickness. This can cause damage to one or more edges of the substrate when substrates are pushed against locating pins. It is also possible for substrates to be warped to such an extent that an edge will ride over a locating pin.